AN ONLINE competition for Coventry readers to vote for their favourite books has already attracted 56,000 hits on its website.

The Coventry Book Awards, run by the city council, invites people of all ages to get involved in reading.

This year there are 12 categories - six for children and six for adults - and each short list contains 12 books.

Readers are asked to vote for their favourites and week by week the books with the fewest votes will be eliminated, with the winners announced in February next year.

The Book Awards were launched by children's illustrator Alex T Smith when he visited Holbrook Primary School last week. Since then the web-site has been visited more than 56,000 times, which is almost as many times as it was visited in the whole of October last year.

Joy Court, National Year of Reading co-ordinator at the council, said: "I am extremely pleased with this great start but that's not surprising since we have such great books on the short lists this year.

"The continuing sponsorship from Scholastic Book Fairs is also a testament to our growing profile in the world of publishing. I frequently get queries from publishers these days asking how they can submit their books for consideration, and I have to tell them the only nominations we accept are from the children, young people, teachers and librarians of Coventry."

Coventry city councillor Tim Sawdon, cabinet member for culture, leisure and libraries, said: "We encourage everyone to read the amazing books and vote. With 12 books in 12 categories there is plenty of choice."

"In 2008 the website topped over 300,000 hits so let's see if 2009 can reach even higher."

The Telegraph will be highlighting the books short-listed for the awards, with more details of how you can vote for your favourites.